Governor Jindal's war on Public Education and Teachers

Part I Changes in Accountability and School Performance Scores: The ESEA No Child Left Behind proposal sent to the US DOE last week is really a major revision of the Louisiana Accountability System. In my opinion, when combined with the new legislation nullifying tenure, making all professional educators' careers dependent on student test scores, and adding unlimited vouchers and charters, it amounts to accountability on steroids. And just like athletes who misuse steroids to get bigger and stronger, this "miracle" reform plan is likely to produce grotesque and damaging results and side effects.

In addition to setting unscientific and unattainable student achievement goals in a two year period, the ESEA waiver proposal drastically changes the mechanism for calculating school performance scores. (see pages 49 - 61 of the ESEA waiver application). To put it briefly the rating system is changed from a 200 point system to a 150 point system yet the points needed for various letter grades are not reset proportionately. Proportionally the minimum "A" should go from 120 to 90, but the lowest A is set at 100. The new B is 85 to 99.9, the new C is 70 to 84.9, and the new D is 50 to 69.9. The numbers have changed drastically but, not to worry. The Department plans to jury rig the scoring system to end up with just about the same numbers of schools falling in each category of letter grades as with the old system. So this seems to indicate what many suspected all along; that the Department can manipulate the numbers to produce whatever results they choose. For example, there will be a fudge factor in the calculation that will award bonus points for schools that make greater than expected progress with low performing sub groups using the new value added formulas. These are formulas like the Coca-Cola formulas that are kept in a safe that only the statistics gurus at the DOE are allowed to study and adjust.  This whole scheme is a process that looks scientific because of the fancy formulas, but is really pseudo science used to produce a predetermined result. So local school administrators will only know how it works after the results have been determined.

All schools other than A schools will be expected to increase their SPS by 10 points each year (proportionally this would be like 13.3 points on the old system) so that the state can seem to be progressing to 100% proficiency in only two years. This goal will be unattainable for most schools. No one in the field now really knows what sanctions may result from not attaining these goals.

Now lets look at the main thrust of the attack on public education and teachers:
Part II Legislation, MFP, Vouchers and Charters: (See Diane Ravitch's article on the same legislation linked here)
The major campaign against public education began with a drastic change in the MFP last week by the Jindal controlled BESE. According to the new formula, numerous special schools, charters, and voucher schools will now be able to raid the funding from public schools according to the number of students they gain. One major legal concern is that since the private schools will also raid the component of MFP coming from local taxes that the voters may have approved for specific purposes, this may not be allowed by the constitution. Local school Boards along with the LAE and LFT are encouraged to adopt the LSBA resolution to authorize and pursue an immediate legal challenge.

HB 974 and SB 603 which may be heard in the Senate Education Committee in a full day meeting next Thursday, March 15 will be the big push for destruction of job security for all teachers, principals, and even superintendents! When combined with the implementation of the Act 54 evaluation and the accountability changes described above, these bills (they are identical versions of House and Senate bills) will basically make every educators' job dependent on the student achievement of unrealistic academic goals and could demoralize the teaching profession.

The new legislation will immediately eliminate the normal tenure process for any new teachers and nullify tenure for thousands of experienced teachers. Tenure is ended as soon as a teacher gets one ineffective evaluation. Also, the Act 54 evaluation, in the first year of operation, could put thousands teachers on a path to dismissal because of the mandatory 10% failure factor. This number will only grow by thousands each year as the 10% factor is applied again and again. That's because the evaluation plan for teachers described in that ESEA Waiver will mandate that the bottom scoring 10% of  teachers get an evaluation of "ineffective" no matter what local administrators believe about their teachers' effectiveness. This is further complicated by the fact that 66% of  teachers in Louisiana are teaching non-tested subjects. It is not clear if the 10% failure factor will be applied to the teachers of non-tested subjects. No one has figured out a practical and equally rigorous way of applying value added goals to these teachers. But who cares?

The Principal's evaluation will also depend partially on the number of teachers rated "ineffective" and principals will be trapped by a "catch 22" situation. If the principal applies the (COMPASS) in too strict a manner, too many teachers will get "ineffective" and the principal is in trouble. If the principal grades teachers too easy and the value added portion shows up poor or negative for the unique student gains expected of each teacher, then the State Department will send an investigation team out to find out why those teachers are not being properly punished! (I'm just guessing on that part). All indications are that the ACT 54 evaluation will produce many erratic and incorrect teacher evaluation results. How can anyone justify tampering with the job security of professional educators in this frivolous manner? Local school boards will have no more say in these issues than the BESE Board has in dealing with Jindal and White.

My readers are sophisticated intelligent people. You know what will happen if HB 976 and SB 597 (The charter and voucher expansion bills) pass. This will introduce a major conflict between privatization forces and local school boards. The parent trigger provision allows any charter group to attack a low performing school with a petition drive among parents, bypassing local school boards. But the most dangerous provisions are those that will allow BESE to approve new charters and new voucher schools to spring up and cherry pick students from most local school systems to set up schools that have a performance advantage over local public schools. They will also dump out all their low performers to re-enter public schools. This is just like how the New York Yankees used to guarantee success by buying the best talent. All of this will raid the local MFP. In addition, since the charters and private schools do not have to participate in the teacher retirement system, local school boards will be mandated to pay an even greater contribution to the retirement system to offset the loss of employees. (they are now mandated to pay 25% contribution for each employee)

Educators, this is nothing less than an all out attack on public education and the many dedicated educators who have devoted their lives to the welfare  of children. It makes what happened last year in Wisconsin to public education look like childsplay! And what's sad is the Governor's strategists have calculated that the teaching profession in Louisiana is too beat down to fight back! If educators do not go to the capitol on March 15 to tell our legislators how we know this will damage the education of children and ruin many educators' careers we will be partly responsible for the demise of public education in Louisiana.

I will immediately update the information in this blog when we find out more about the legislative agenda for March 15. Please stay informed and be willing to act on a moment's notice.

The Need to Empower Educators

Important Notice 3/5/12: Jindal Education Reform Legislation Introduced; Please click on the following bill numbers to read the full text of the Jindal legislaton to expand vouchers and charters and nullify tenure, add merit pay and fire teachers. HB 976 and SB 597 are House and Senate versions of the charter/voucher bills. HB 974 and SB 603  are House and Senate versions of bills that shift teacher firing authority to Superintendents and make teacher and administrator firing, loss of tenure, merit pay, and loss of certification dependent on achievement of unrealistic student goals. Please review these bills and prepare to contact your legislators since this package is expected to be the first order of business at the Legislature starting March 12. The Jindal plan is to rush these bill through before educators have time to tell their legislators how damaging these bills are to public education and to teachers and administrators. I will add analysis on this soon.

Something happened last week in Louisiana public education that went completely under the radar of the news media. It happened without the knowledge of and consultation with most professional educators in the field. Our Governor and new State Superintendent have taken pains to pay lip service to the idea of empowering school principals and teachers, yet the changes in policy this week continue the trend of mandating unsound education goals and practices without considering the legitimate concerns of the educators in the field. I believe this week's changes in policy will only undermine public support for public education and demoralize public school educators. The policy changes came about as a result of a somewhat obscure 131 page proposal by the LDOE to request ESEA flexibility and waivers of the No Child Left Behind requirements.

This proposal was submitted to the US DOE without a vote of BESE and without the opportunity for public discussion. The only information shared by the LDOE with local educators was a slick Power Point show presented to Superintendents and the Accountability Commission that did not divulge the choices available to Louisiana in requesting the ESEA flexibility and waiver.

In my opinion, the most disappointing component of Louisiana's ESEA Flexibility Request and waiver of No Child Left Behind was that the request did not take advantage of the most helpful change in rules offered to us on a silver platter by Arne Duncan and the US DOE! If you have followed this blog in the past you are familiar with the concern of many educators about the impracticality of the NCLB requirement for 100% proficiency of all children in English language arts and math by the year 2014. But this is the option (Option C) chosen by Superintendent White and our DOE as part of the waiver request. And to add insult to injury, the LDOE implied that educators in the schools agree with this impossible requirement! See the statement on page 65 of the linked document: “Louisiana remains committed to the AMOs established several years ago, which set yearly growth targets aimed towards 100 percent of children in the state attaining proficiency by 2014.”

On page 62 of the flexibility application, the US DOE had allowed Louisiana to choose between three options for setting student achievement goals according to the following:

"2.B SET AMBITIOUS BUT ACHIEVABLE ANNUAL MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES
Option A reads: "Set AMOs in annual equal increments toward a goal of reducing by half the percentage of students in the 'all students' group and in each subgroup who are not proficient within six years.”

Our LDOE passed up this opportunity in favor of a PR choice (Option C) that may end up putting a failure label on 90% of our public schools across the state by 2014. So much for the empowerment of local principals and teachers.

The Department tries to hedge this foolish choice by calling the goal of 100% proficiency  an “aspirational” goal. But the USDOE did not ask for an aspirational goal. They asked for “ambitious but achievable annual measurable objectives.” If you look at the table submitted by the LDOE on page 62, you will see that the AMOs for the years 2012, 2013, and 2014 are not achievable in the real world.

My concern is this: If we lie to the public about what is achievable in public education, aren't we setting up our schools for an unnecessary perception of failure in the eyes of the public? Would a doctor guarantee every patient a cure of his ailment regardless of the other factors in the environment affecting that patient's health? Yet that's what we are doing in Louisiana public education.

Do you really care about being empowered as a professional educator? Then why not make your concerns known to the US Department of Education by sending an email to the Department indicating which choice you believe Louisiana should make in its NCLB waiver application? The Louisiana Association of Educators (click on this link to see the LAE letter to the LDOE and the  USDOE) has made its concerns known to the USDOE, but one group is not enough. The USDOE needs to hear from individual administrators, principals and teachers.  If you agree, just copy the following email address: ( ESEAflexibility@ed.gov.) and use it to submit your own email on this subject to the US DOE. I suggest you include your name,  position,  and the name of your school if you want it to be taken seriously.

I hope many educators and even parents will email their concerns on this matter directly to the USDOE.

On Wednesday March 7 this blog will discuss other important details in the Waiver Request which will also affect every public school in the state.

Basic Flaws in Education Reform

New Developments  on ESEA Waiver Request 2/28/12: The LDOE has revised its proposals for the ESEA waiver request. The weight for the ACT average for high schools will be reduced from 50% to 25% and a 25% factor added back for the Graduation index. (This is an improvement). Unfortunately, all schools other than A schools will be required to grow 10 SPS points each year on a much more compressed scale. When you include the addition of the new bonus points, there is no telling how all this will affect schools, yet it is clear that keeping the 100% proficiency goal by 2014 is totally ridiculous. The USDOE had given states the option of progressing to a 50% reduction of its non-proficient student groups over a 6 year period. Louisiana is choosing to reach full proficiency in a little over 2 years!

Several local and regional newspapers around the state are editorializing about what the editors perceive as possible flaws in the Jindal education reform package. In addition, some local superintendents and other long time educators are pointing out basic flaws in the plan. Our readers can get a good overview of concerns of educators and non-educators by reviewing the following recent articles from around the state:

• Problems with Jindal's plan; A letter to the editor of the local Houma news
• Grade All Schools; From the Monroe Newsstar
• Louisiana Should be Shown Proof That Private Schools Are Worth It; An editorial comment by Jarvis DeBerry writing for Nola.com
• Evangeline Parish School Board voices concern about changes: From the Ville Platte Acadian Press
• Define goals of the voucher program; An editorial of the Lafayette Advertiser

Governor Jindal's education reform plan may have been well thought out politically; its like the "shock and awe" campaign waged in Iraq. But like that military campaign, while it may be successful in bringing major change to education, the entire theory and basis of the campaign are dead wrong!
Here are some assumptions that amount to fatal flaws in the plan:

• Many people pay their hard earned money to send their children to private schools, therefore private schools must be better. As Jindal stated: "parents are the best accountability system". Well if that's true why are we spending millions upon millions testing and grading public schools? Several Louisiana school systems long ago have adopted open enrollment polices that allow parents to transfer their children from their local school to another school if they feel it will provide a better education. Also one of the big miscalculations of the No Child Left Behind law allows parents whose children attend schools classified as failing to transfer to other public schools. Most parents have ignored all of these "opportunities" and continued to send their children to their neighborhood school. The fact is many parents send their children to private schools because they do not like the racial composition or the socio-economic complexion of the public school in their community. As a by product of white flight or middle class flight, statistics show that a middle class or higher income student body generally results in higher educational attainment. Let me add that the Zachary school system (a public school system) which has prospered partially because of this trend has attracted many black middle class families whose children also do well in school. Does anyone really believe that the middle class families who have paid their hard earned money to send their children to an exclusive school will tolerate an invasion of low performing and possibly disruptive students into their selective school?  If this voucher proposal passes, some poor families will try to enroll their students because of hope for a better opportunity but most will be refused because of lack of seats. In addition, many who are accepted will soon be expelled or counseled out because there is no way the state will tamper with a private school's right to enforce discipline policies as it has done with our public schools. The real danger, as was pointed out in a couple of editorials, is that fly-by-night operations will spring up to make a profit from the vouchers at the expense of the children and the taxpayers. 
• State Superintendent John White apparently believes that the new value added teacher evaluation system coupled with a dismantling of tenure, will magically cause all students in Louisiana to achieve proficiency on the state tests. Proficiency, which in Louisiana is defined basically as average performance, cannot be achieved by the statistical nature of how average performance is determined! So to accomplish this misguided mission the state will try to decree that at least 10% of all teachers will have to be rated ineffective and ultimately dismissed. Will we call them back when the students fail to perform as expected?
• Finally, the dumbest assumption of all is that the school system can produce 100% high school graduates that are college and career ready. Prior to recent times the goal of public education was to produce students who were college or career ready. This seemingly small change in educational philosophy puts huge numbers of our students in an impossible trap of having to be prepared for college even if they have little aptitude or motivation to do so. See the comments of the Evangeline Parish Superintendent in the article from the Acadian Press. By adopting a high school rating scale that depends on ACT scores, the state is killing most legitimate career training programs in our schools and watering down the true college prep courses. Even in Finland, the most successful educational system in the western world, only 40% of the students are prepared for college. The majority are given top notch vocational training which leads to excellent careers. Add to this the fact that Finland has a poverty rate in their schools of only 5% while Louisiana has a 60% poverty enrollment in our public schools. This is a really dumb requirement!

I believe Jindal and White are setting Louisiana up for an educational disaster.